The X Files

Chris Carter once said that he ‘didn’t want [The X-Files] to be another Moonlighting. [He] didn’t want the relationship to come before the cases’, ruling out the possibility of a relationship between the two main characters. While this did, ultimately, change by the end of the show’s run, the unresolved sexual tension that existed through the course of the series, particularly in seasons one to seven, gave fan fiction writers fuel with which to create their own erotic adaptations of the show. For a fandom that coined the term ‘shipper’, it is not surprising that a large amount of fan fiction concerning Mulder and Scully’s relationship has been written. It is less surprising that a high percentage of these deal with the first sexual encounter between the two agents. But this is also a subject that The Sex Files: A Dark XXX Parody (Hain, 2009) has chosen to explore. In this article I explore the interaction between the canon text, the fan fiction that has arisen from it, and The Sex Files, to examine the appeal of first time fics and the ways in which prior readings of the text(s) led to the fan readings of the porn parody.

Published Research (March 2013 to today) and Reviews (February 2 to December 18, 2016)
Cinema and television have become obsessions in me over the years and today with the large flat screen we have, with a universal, all zone and all standard DVD reader we can access all the films that are available in the whole world on a digital medium.

In the following pages, which are more a book than a paper, I have brought together all the full studies published at Amazon Kindle or on Academia.edu (these studies are extensive and I only give the presentation and the front page of them. Then I have collected all the reviews published on various sites, particularly various Amazon national branches over about the last eleven months.

Literary theorist Gérard Genette defined paratext as those things in a published work (the author's name, preface, illustrations) that accompany the text. He described the paratext as a form of ‘airlock’ between the reader and the textual world, an influence that “is at the service of a better reception for the text and a more pertinent reading of it” (1997). Jonathan Gray, however, believes the paratext “does not stand between reader and text as much as it infringes upon the text, and invades its meaning-making process” (2006). He argues that ‘official’ paratexts such as episode guides, cast and crew interviews, games, trailers and DVD commentaries inform viewers’ knowledge of the text and give us ways of looking, and frames for understanding or engaging, with it (2010). Gray also, however, refers to fan-created paratexts. Citing fan fiction, fan film and video, ‘filk’ and fan art, amongst others, he argues that these also play a role in “challenging or supplementing those created by the industry […] in carving out alternative pathways through texts” (2010).

Drawing on Gray’s notion of the fan-created paratext, this paper seeks to examine the role which the fanmix plays in framing the on-screen narrative by undertaking a textual analysis of X-Files fanmixes and the meta and picspams that occasionally accompany them. I argue that by adopting songs which are neither officially sanctioned or entirely fan-created these ‘fan-adopted’ paratexts provide other fans with new ways of engaging with and understanding the text.

Like Mulder and Scully, we exist in a world full of monsters. For as long as there have been humans, there have been myths, legends, folklore and fairy tales full of monsters, attempting to explore what it means to be human, civilised and safe.

In his essay 'Monster Culture (Seven Theses)' Jeffrey Jerome Cohen explores the view that the monstrous body is a metaphor for the cultural body, as monsters in their various forms anthropomorphise anxieties and act as literal manifestations of cultural unease.

When considering a TV series as progressive and culturally aware as The X Files, it is imperative to understand that the monsters which pervade the narratives are not there by accident—they embody that which threatens and terrifies.

When discussed as a genre, Telefantasy may be regarded as a hybrid category because it subsumes existing labels. Although Telefantasy is a composite genre, the characteristics of its constituent elements - namely Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror - are often in conflict, requiring an appraisal of the tensions between them. This article explores the prospects of using Telefantasy as a generic classification by showing the collective presence of these
different genres within The X-Files (1993-2002). It traces the historical interaction between the three genres that make up Telefantasy through a series of examples from Edgar Allan Poe to H.P. Lovecraft and The Twilight Zone (1959-1964), thus providing a historical grounding for generic interaction. The present article forms part of a larger project concerning the interaction of generic motifs in North American cultural history. Here, the focus of that project is directed at examining Telefantasy and the utility of composite genre to the study of television programs.

PLEASE READ REVIEW OF MY BOOK HERE: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/jacc.12865
It has only 5 star ratings on Amazon.
With its return to television as an "event series" in 2016, this volume offers a timely assessment of the show’s cultural relevance and social significance. Fans of the show, as well as readers interested in cultural studies, genre criticism, race and ethnicity, fan studies, social commentary, and gender studies will appreciate this insightful examination of the series.

The Queen is Dead, Long Live the Queen
Realistic Racism or Racist Realism

You have all reasons to be afraid. The world, the cosmos, the universe are against you and you will fail.

That’s the absolute pessimism of the series. There is no hope and your victory, bringing a dome down, is only the first step of the final invasion, just like Brexit is the first step towards the absolute homogenization of the world, homogenization in diversity, and not the fake superficial and rather limited diversity of the sexes (only two, more or less) or genders (about at least twelve with all orientations) but the diversity of absolutely all differences seen as an asset for all, including extraterrestrial differences if they exist or appear one day, brought back by some cosmonaut, astronaut or spationaut from the vast cosmos.

The novel was quite open on the extraterrestrial dimension. The series has become totally centered on that element.

The novel revealed how every single difference could become the cause of some segregation or violence. The series keeps that element but introduces the concept of a kinship, supposedly of extraterrestrial origin, but that is a totalitarian organization: absolute obedience (obey or die) and dependence (be dependent and survive), total submission (submit or die), final sense of sacrifice (be ready to sacrifice your life for the survival of the kinship and survive till the time has come for your sacrifice)

The book as well as the series, though the series maybe more, suggests the fact that some people are born with the gene of domination. No matter what circumstances they may find themselves in, these individuals (they are never groups of people and if we have a group it is a group of dependent people with one among them who is the real leader) will always get on top.

Successful in second hand business (second hand car dealership), then mayor of the city (or whatever it may be called, first selectman for example), then tyrant of the isolated community, and then after liberation Congressman and if you think of “House of Cards” the White House in perspective. This vision is very common and has neither been proved nor disproved, though some people seem to think you must have suffered in a way or another to develop that mental orientation of a leader. Others think you need to have a special gene somewhere like the Wanderlust gene DRD4-7R. Some also believe these individuals have been inspired by some divine force or cosmic influence, and this last approach has very popular forms like believing it was raining intelligence when someone was born.

We are dealing here with some modern science fiction that should bring up myriads of questions beyond simply enjoying the show.

I undertook this project because science fiction television in general and the shows analyzed specifically were formative influences in my life.  Watching the original Star Trek movie franchise or Star Trek: The Next Generation on television was a family activity and facilitated bonding between my father, my younger brother and I.  As I grew older, the X-Files encouraged me to think critically about the world around me and reinforced my suspicion of authority and those in power.  In particular I recall being fascinated by the episodes which dealt with Native American characters and themes; a fascination I have discovered since is echoed by many white fans, often in a way that echoes the worst of colonialist narratives.

Chris Carter once said that he “didn't want [The X-Files] to be another Moonlighting. [He] didn't want the relationship to come before the cases”  ruling out the possibility of a relationship between the two main characters. While this did change by the end of the show, the unresolved sexual tension that existed through the course of the series, particularly in seasons one to seven, gave fanfiction writers reason to create their own erotic adaptations.

For a fandom that coined the term ‘shipper’, it is not surprising that a large number of stories concerning Mulder and Scully’s relationship have been written.  It is perhaps less surprising that a high percentage of these are ‘first time fics’, dealing with the agents’ first sexual encounter. But this is also a subject that the 2009 porn parody (The Sex Files: A Dark XX Parody) chose to deal with. In this paper I wish to explore the interaction between the canon text, the fan fiction texts which have arisen from it, and The Sex Files: A Dark XX Parody, to examine the appeal of ‘first time fics’ and the ways in which prior readings of the text(s) led to the development of the porn parody.

Raised by Wolves follows the aftermath of a war caused by the polarizing strife between two factions: atheists and believers. Failing to find common ground, they resort to violence, nearly leading to mutual annihilation. Sent to uncharted territory where imminent danger is always around the corner, a pair of androids are programmed to foster a new civilization. The series carries all the traits of the sci-fi genre and is a classic Ridley Scott production. The Tyrell Corporation's slogan in Blade Runner (1982), "more human than humans," resonates in the desperate attempt to give humanity another chance, relying on self-intuitive machines designed to express emotions and mimic behavior. Father (Abubakar Salim) is no match for the strength and complexity of Mother, a more evolved android. Mother (Amanda Collin), the benefactress of the newly founded colony, is also a deadly necromancer of astonishing power, going on killing sprees during hysteric attacks when danger is imminent and using her primal sonic scream as a weapon. Her powers emanate from her eyes. She carries another set of regular eyeballs in a pouch and uses them for everyday life, changing to necromancer-superpower eyeballs when in attack mode. Eyes are a window to the soul-or, in this case, to the android's internal struggle between fostering or destroying life. This is similar to Blade Runner, where the Voight-Kampff test monitors physiological responses and determines if the subject is human or replicant. Blade Runner's Los Angeles urban space covered in Japanese billboards, dark streets with multicultural crowds speaking various languages in a time when Japan appeared to be the next global power and Japanese investors flocked to buy US real estate, alludes to real fears and precedes Huntington's anxiety-packed Clash of Civilizations. Rising environmental awareness is seen in the foggy and dusty skyline, while grimy, tarnished streets provide a stark contrast to gleaming skyscrapers, highlighting class division and acting as a prelude to the discourse about the 1%. The series and the genre rely on preying on anxieties. Both Raised by Wolves and Blade Runner reflect the very polarizing world we live in.

Die gigantische Explosion, die am 30. Juni 1908 weite Teile der sibirischen Tunguska-Region verwüstete, ist eine der verheerendsten Katastrophen des 20. Jahrhunderts. Ihre Zerstörungskraft lässt sich jedoch nicht in Zahlen ausdrücken. Das katastrophische Potenzial des Tunguska-Ereignisses liegt vielmehr in seiner beharrlichen Rätselhaftigkeit. Das Fehlen einer haltbaren Erklärung erschüttert die moderne Wissensproduktion in ihren Grundfesten.
Solvejg Nitzkes Analyse des Tunguska-Diskurses, der wissenschaftliche, parawissenschaftliche und literarische Texte umfasst, zeigt nicht nur die Grenzen zentraler Programme der Moderne auf, sondern öffnet nicht zuletzt auch den Blick für die Möglichkeiten kulturwissenschaftlicher Forschung.

http://www.transcript-verlag.de/978-3-8376-3657-4/Die-Produktion-der-Katastrophe

This article argues that serialized narratives on the small screen are undergoing, in recent years, a season of increasing hybridism on many levels, as regards serialization formulas (e.g. serial vs series); the differences that used to distinguish mise en scène on the small and the big screen; the Manicheism according to which stories used to be populated by heroes and villains; and the production and reception as distinctive phases of media communication, increasingly characterized by new forms of interaction between networks and creators, and their audiences.
Furthermore, this research traces the distinct contribution that science fiction has brought and is bringing to these ongoing hybridization processes, a role exemplary embodied by X-Files (created by Chris Carter, 1993-2002, 2016). With its duality of plot lines and points of view, X-Files embeds ontological ambiguities and epistemological uncertainties in its narrative invention, aptly exemplifying the main changes that television series underwent between the 1990s and the 2010s, and tapping into central currents of the contemporary collective imagery.
The comprehensive analysis of these processes offered by this article covers the decades between the late 1980s and the 2010s, and can be outlined around three main spheres: textual (genres and techniques of serialized narratives); technical and industrial (new possibilities available to the medium thanks to innovations in production and distribution); communicative (the television text and its reception in the age of trans-media storytelling and re-mediation). The concurrent reflections on these levels allows to suggest possible periodizations in recent television history, and to call into question what we mean by 'television series' today.
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Questo saggio parte dalla constatazione che il racconto seriale televisivo sta vivendo una stagione di ibridismi a vari livelli: dalle declinazioni della formularità narrativa, alle distinzioni di genere, dalle differenze tra messa in scena televisiva e cinematografica, al manicheismo che usava distinguere buoni e cattivi, fino alla distinzione tra dominio della produzione e della ricezione nel circuito comunicativo.
In questo lavoro di ricerca particolare attenzione viene dedicata al ruolo, per molti versi pivotale, che la fantascienza ha rivestito (e sta rivestendo) in questi processi. La serie X-Files (creata da Chris Carter, 1993-2002, 2016), con la sua dualità di sotto-trame e di punti di vista, con la sua incessante riproposizione di un’ambiguità ontologica ed epistemologica del mondo finzionale e del racconto, ha non solo costituito un'eccezionale esemplificazione di questi cambiamenti, ma anche svolto una sua particolare sizigia tra immaginario collettivo e paradigma di realtà contemporaneo, tra narrazione catodica e mito, tra verità e paranoia complottista.
Il saggio offre una riflessione su questi processi coprendo un arco temporale che va dagli anni Ottanta ai Duemiladieci, e muovendosi in tre ambiti di analisi: testuale (generi e tecniche del racconto nella serialità di oggi), tecnologico e industriale (nuove possibilità del medium), comunicativo (la natura del testo televisivo e della sua ricezione all'epoca della trans-medialità e della ri-mediazione). Considerate nel loro insieme queste tre sfere di riflessione suggeriscono una periodizzazione, e permettono di interrogare il significato profondo di ciò che oggi va sotto il nome di “serialità televisiva”.

In this paper, I explore a particular kind of narrative construction pervasive in contemporary American television series. Popular shows such as Lost, Battlestar Galactica, 24, Alias, or Fringe all similarly construct long-running narratives around their protagonists’ attempts to solve central underlying mysteries. By doing so, these series amass ever more complex backstories and perpetually complicate their individual webs of intersecting subplots and long-term story arcs. Drawing on narratology, concepts developed in television studies, and Mark Fenster’s work on Conspiracy Theories, I argue that the series’ success is indebted to a particular way of telling their stories—which I call the ‘conspiratorial mode’—that makes them ideally suited to operate within the competitive environment of post-network television. This article sketches the narrative structure of these conspiratorial shows, situates them in the context of contemporary television, and considers their curious dynamics...

This article returns to Fredric Jameson's early writings on film to assert the continued importance of cognitive mapping, which remains a necessary critical response to the problems posed by contemporary mass culture. I employ Jameson's methodology—one essentially absent from television studies today—to historicize the FOX series, The X-Files, in light of its reboot in 2016. Airing from 1993-2002, the series figured what Michelle Alexander diagnoses as " the New Jim Crow " —the phenomenon of mass incarceration that marked a new racial caste system in the U.S. emerging in the 1980s and 1990s. At the height of the war on drugs, the show's investigatory framework allegorized the vast juridical system controlling surplus populations at the end of the twentieth century. The historical allegory of The X-Files is to be found in the dialectical relationship between the mythology and the monster-of-the-week episodes, with the former providing an indictment of governmental " conspiracy " and the latter narrativizing the material, embodied effects of its unchecked power on marginalized communities.

Resumo Este artigo tem como objetivo analisar as ações transmídia desenvolvidas pela Fox para a décima temporada da The X-Files. Iremos refletir de que forma o fenômeno aprofunda a trama. Abstract This paper aims to analyze the transmediation actions developed by Fox for the tenth season of The X-Files. We will reflect on how the phenomenon deepens the plot.

This article examines how the 2016 X-Files revival restages the storytelling strategies that defined the show’s original run within the framework of the six-episodes-long event season. It argues that the 2016 iteration of the program adopts the alternation between procedural “Monster-of-the-Week” episodes, parodistic installments, and entries that advance an ongoing conspiracy plot for its own purposes. More specifically, the article suggests that the revival abandons the original series’ emphasis on long-term audience engagement in favor of a retrospective outlook that serves to legitimate the revival’s status as a worthy continuation of the original run—and that this shift is informed by its status as an event series. In doing so, the revival resurrects a mode of television storytelling informed by the demands of television’s multichannel era. To make this argument, the article discusses the storytelling strategies of The X-Files’ original run, and examines their implementation in the revival series. (Part of a _Television & New Media_ Special Issue on American TV Series Revivals)

This thesis explores the current pervasiveness of conspiracy-themed shows on American television. It argues that such shows should not simply be regarded as symptomatic expressions of widely shared cultural anxieties in post-9/11 America, but circulate because of a shared narrative structure which provides unique appeals and invites 'forensic' audiences practices. Discussing prominent examples like The X-Files, Lost, Fringe, and Homeland, this thesis sketches the narrative logics of what I call 'the conspiratorial mode of storytelling' and the audience practices it invites - arguing that these shows encourage their audiences to engage with their narrative material in a manner that parallels the paranoid hermeneutics of conspiracy theorists. As such, they provide audiences with a pop-cultural playground to engage with conspiracy theory - and allow them to 'try out' the paranoid interpretive logics of conspiracy theorists in the attempt to unravel their central narrative enigmas. These shows thus become culturally 'productive' by promoting conspiratorial thought. My thesis furthermore offers an overview of recent work on conspiracy theory (as ideology, as a mode of interpretation, and as a narrative structure),  relates the latter to popular television series and engages critically with recent academic appraisals of narratively complex television and participatory culture.
In developing its argument, it tries to offer some answers to the question how increasingly complex television series maintain their accessibility and audiences' active engagement despite increasingly dense narrative developments and their stories' tendency to careen towards incoherence. Accordingly, this thesis relates their current prominence to the media environment of the post-television (or convergence) era, and its digital fora that allow for the discussion, interpretation, and analysis of TV texts. It furthermore reads the increasing complexity of television series as indicating a further permeation of the boundaries between work and leisure under advanced capitalism.

What happens in a viewer’s experience when not only speech and writing are jumbled but also languages, as is the case of bilingual viewers of subtitled film and television ? This article presents a playful approach to the question and proposes a teratology of supplementary bodies created in the stereoscopes of speech and writing and French and English in the first season of the X-Files. The teratology is grown out of Donna Haraway and Beatriz Preciado feminisms/queer theories, in which inhabiting the in-between space between technology, animal and human can be an occasion for resistance. Using the monstrous (Niranjana, Jacobs, Meschonnic) practice of translation, I invent subcategories of « monsters »  in reception : clones, queers, dismembered and rearranged bodies, humanimals and cyborgs.

espanolEste articulo tiene como objetivo analizar las acciones transmedia de la decima temporada de The X-Files. Vamos a reflexionar de que forma el fenomeno profundiza la trama. EnglishThis paper aims to analyze the transmediation actions developed by Fox for the tenth season of The X-Files. We will reflect on how the phenomenon deepens the plot portuguesEste artigo tem como objetivo analisar as acoes transmidia desenvolvidas pela Fox para a decima temporada da The X-Files. Iremos refletir de que forma o fenomeno aprofunda a trama.

Conceituada por Mittell (2012,2015) a complexidade narrativa tem como característica central a alternância entre a fruição episódica e a seriada. Exibida pela emissora Fox, a série The X-Files alterna entre episódios com arco narrativo prolongado, que são focados na mitologia da trama, e episódios isolados, tais como o monstro da semana. Nesse contexto, o objetivo deste artigo é refletir sobre os aspectos da complexidade narrativa presentes nos comentários postados no Twitter durante o XFRewatch. Lançado pelo fã clube The X-Files News, o projeto dialoga com a social TV ao estimular os fãs da série a compartilharem em tempo real suas impressões sobre os episódios no microblogging, resgatando e potencializando a ritualização e a socialização em torno do conteúdo televisivo.

"They will be in the same position as a child who has left the parental house where he was so warm and comfortable. Men cannot remain children forever; they must in the end go out into 'hostile life'."

-Freud, “The Future of an Illusion”


Paranormal Activity (Oren Peli, 2007) is set in a comfortable, bourgeois milieu where a young couple begin to experience “strange goings on” in their home. They set up motion-activated video cameras in the house at night in order to find out what is going on with predictably terrifying results, as the “paranormal” invades their domestic sphere.

In this paper I will suggest that Paranormal Activity operates according to a logic expressed succinctly by Bart Simpson when left home alone: “Day is awesome! Night is scary…”. This apparent dualism – the liberation of “day” and the terror of “night” – I will argue is what fundamentally underpins the question of freedom for psychoanalysis. As Bart realises, in the absence of “parents” (the big Other), it would seem that we are free to do as we please. But in the absence of “parents” (the symbolic guarantee of the Other), we are exposed to the crippling exigencies of the world.

If we can say that one of the key lessons of psychoanalysis is the necessity of taking on the responsibility for one’s own desire, then I will suggest that Paranormal Activity presents an instance in which this responsibility is refused. The narrative attempts to deny the Subject’s relation to lack, attempting to fill this void with an imaginary nightmare. It is easier, the film shows, to imagine a persecutory force in the world than it is to accept that all we must face is our own desire.

My approach to the question of freedom will thus return to its Oedipal coordinates in order to plot a trajectory that takes the Subject, as Freud insists, beyond the “parental house” and into “hostile life”.

The social TV marks the convergence of television experience with social media. The phenomenon refers to content sharing through social networks and second screen apps simultaneously to television broadcasting. In this context, this article aims to discuss the features explored by Fox during The X-Files 10 th season to engage the interacting viewers with social TV. We analysed the dialogue between the fictional universe of the series and the backchannelthrough a monitoring of @thexfiles profile postings on Twitter during the exhibition of series episodes. We conclude that the network's engagement strategies reinforce the social bond, stimulate the participation of the interacting viewers, and amplify the narrative arcs of The X-Files.

Resumen

La social TV marca la convergencia de la experiencia televisiva con los nuevos medios. El fenómeno se refiere al intercambio de contenidos hecho a través de las redes sociales y de las aplicaciones de segunda pantalla de manera síncrona al flujo televisivo. A partir de ese contexto, este artículo tiene el objetivo de reflexionar sobre las acciones de social TV adoptadas por Fox durante la décima temporada de The X-Files. Hemos analizado las publicaciones de la página (@thexfiles) gestionada por el canal en Twitter con el fin de entender cómo contribuyen al desarrollo y la comprensión del universo de ficción de la serie. Hemos concluido que las estrategias de compromiso de la emisora refuerzan el lazo social, estimulan la participación de los telespectadores interactivos y amplían los arcos narrativos de The X-Files.

In 1405, Christine de Pizan, the world's first professional writer, published an allegorical work called The Book of the City of Ladies, in which she imagined constructing (with the help of her fairy godmothers Reason, Rectitude, and Justice) a walled city where women could live safe from sexism, misogyny, and gendered violence. Six hundred years later, we still need such a city. Mega-City Redux charts a road-trip search for this mythical city today, with the help of 21st-century feminist heroes Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Xena Warrior Princess, and Dana Scully from The X-Files.

" 'You gals look like you know how to party.' Pop open a PBR or order a Sex on the Beach and let Alyse Knorr guide you on a journey with Xena, Scully, and Buffy to a world 'as safe as it ever will be' from trauma and hopeless love in the age of screens. Mega-City Redux is essential architecture built from 'sword, suit, stake, and pen'--feminine, marvelous, and mega-tough."
​
--Mel Nichols, author of Catalytic Exteriorization Phenomenon

El 2006, la cadena de televisio per cable Premium nord-americana HBO (Home Box Office), maxim artifex de la renovacio qualitativa experimentada en el nou mil·lenni per la ficcio serialitzada televisiva, estrenava una nova serie: Big Love (Mark V. Olsen, Will Scheffer , HBO: 2006-), una valenta aposta —constant inequivoca en el seu afront per oferir productes diferenciats amb una qualitat cinematografica— que abordava el controvertit tema de la poligamia en una familia mormona situada a l'estat de Utah. Aquest article ofereix una breu aproximacio a les claus narratives que ajuden a descodificar una posada en escena mitjancant la qual se sutura la fallida amb el convencionalisme social i es col·loca l'espectador en una posicio decisivament critica i activa en la interpretacio de la forma en que es construeix el relat al llarg dels dotze episodis que formen la seva primera temporada.

RESUMO: Marcada pela convergência da experiência televisiva com as novas mídias, a social TV se refere ao compartilhamento de conteúdosnas redes sociais e nos aplicativos de segunda tela de maneira síncrona ao fluxo televisivo. O fenômeno possibilita novas apropriações, subversões e amplificações do watercooler, isto é, a intermediação da conversação por plataformas digitais permite a interação em tempo real entre os telespectadores in-teragentes, ressignificando a experiência compartilhada. Neste contexto, este artigo tem o objetivo de refletir de que forma a social TV reforça o conceito de laço social de Wolton e engendra novas possibilidades à experiência televisiva. Para a discussão desta questão,analisamos os conteúdos compartilhados pelo público no Twitter durante a exibição da décima temporada da série The X-Files.A partir da análise qualitativa dos 33 mil tuítes postados pelos telespectadores interagentes, concluímos que, ao entrela-çar o fluxo televisivo e a temporalidade alwayson do Twitter, a social TV reforça o laço social de Woltone ressignifica a experiência televisiva, possibilitando novas formas de participação, colaboração e expansão do universo ficcional.
PALAVRAS-CHAVE:Social TV,The X-Files,laço social.

This articles explores what Norman Mailer called "the opposing theaters of cynicism and paranoia" in American culture by focussing on 'The X-Files' and its reimaginings of American history.  The program--for viewers in the 1990s--staged contradictory visions of the world that resist analysis, or even articulation.

Les genres télésériels évoluent depuis l’émergence du médium, ils se raffinent, se complexifient, s’hybrident, répondant aux exigences et aux compétences spectatorielles grandissantes de son public. Les genres permettent ainsi l’émergence de formules, que l’on adopte pour mieux se les approprier, et à partir desquelles les créateurs peuvent construire la matrice qui donnera à leur œuvre sa structure unique. Entre les séries canoniques des débuts et les grands feuilletons d’aujourd’hui, les années 1990 ont donné naissance à plusieurs séries hybrides, notamment dans le sous-genre du fantastique (par exemple, The X-Files et Buffy The Vampire Slayer), qui combinent des épisodes sériels et feuilletonnants. Au cœur de ces séries se trouvent des épisodes autonomes, souvent les plus appréciés, qui s’écartent de la matrice et proposent des innovations ou des jeux fictionnels, narratifs ou transtextuels.

TV serial genres have evolved since the emergence of the medium, they are becoming more refined, more complex, more hybrid, responding to the growing demands and spectatorial skills of its audience. The genres thus allow the emergence of formulas, which are appropriated by creators, and from which they can build the matrix that will give their work its unique structure. Between the early canonical series and today’s great serials, the 1990s gave rise to several hybrid series, notably in the fantasy subgenre (for example, The X-Files and Buffy The Vampire Slayer), which combine serial episodes and larger seasonal story arc. At the heart of these series are stand-alone episodes, often the most appreciated, that move away from the matrix and propose fictional, narrative or transtextual innovations and games.

This essay investigates representations of southern places and cultures in the genre-straddling television series The X-Files (1993-2002). In one sense, every episode of this series traffics in the exceptional, savoring each successive manifestation of the paranormal, the monstrous, the conspiratorial, and the radically alien. But in another sense, the show crosses paranormal, cultural, and regional borders in remarkably unexceptional, even homogenizing ways.

Filmed on location in North Vancouver, British Columbia (seasons 1-5) and in Los Angeles (seasons 6-9), The X-Files makes shift to represent a wide variety of paranormally-afflicted towns, cities, states, regions, environments, and cultures throughout the continental United States, very much including the U.S. South. Part of my effort in this essay will be to examine the choices the show's makers make as they mark and evoke "southernness" and "the South," carving swamps and pentecostal churches and various other southernisms out of Canadian and southern Californian locations. How do the series's egregiously non-site-specific nods to Flannery O'Connor, Deliverance, Spanish conquistadors, rattlesnake handlers, and more come to seem even remotely convincing? How does The X-Files distinguish a Floridian Vancouver from a West Virginian Vancouver from a Texan—and vampire-infested—Vancouver? And how do its southeasts differ from its southwests?

More broadly, I'd like to consider the status of these Souths as part of a larger transregional fabric that, as presented in episode after episode of The X-Files, renders the South as more similar to other places than distinct from them. That is, what cues "southernness" in The X-Files more powerfully cues homogeneity. Like other regions and other specifically-identified locations depicted in the series, the South is not represented in entirely unrealistic ways; yet the low-budget, easily discernible artificiality of the representation underscores the series's broader concerns with questions of truth and deception, reality and artifice, the "normal" and the paranormal. In other words, the x-filed South is not exceptional because it's the South but because, like so many other places in this shadowy version of the U.S., it hosts an X-file.

I argue that the series has a vested interest in presenting transregionalism as a homogenizing force that does not offer a sturdy, viable, optimistic alternative to its casually grounded regionalism. Instead, the series crosses regional (and cultural, and racial and ethnic, and various other) borders in ways that eerily and relentlessly deconstruct both region and transregion. Perhaps most obviously, the series frequently sets scenes in generic warehouses, offices, garages, laboratories, and other dark, shadowy, nondescript spaces that evoke a dark, networked, federally investigated homogeneity that simultaneously stores, covers up, and promises "the truth." As the poster on Fox Mulder's FBI office wall says, "the truth is out there"—and "out there" could be anywhere.

The popularity of The X-Files coincides with the emergence of New Southern Studies, and I want to suggest that transregionalism, an extension of hemispheric and global southern studies, offers a host of new and productive ways of rereading the South. Transregionalism helps us intercept paradigms (local/global, north/south) that often place the south as one part of a binary, or as the microcosm to some meta-southern microcosm. In this essay, though, I explore the limits of a transregionalism in which the South is but one cluster of X's among many and in which X does not, really, mark the spot.